Monday, October 30, 2006

In their push to win back control of the House, Democrats have turned to conservative and moderate candidates who fit the profiles of their districts more closely than the profile of the national party.

One such candidate, Heath Shuler, was courted by Republicans to run for office in 2001. Mr. Shuler, 34, is a retired National Football League quarterback who is running in the 11th Congressional District in North Carolina. He is an evangelical Christian and holds fast to many conservative social views, like opposition to abortion rights.

“My guess is that if Democrats are in the majority, it’s going to be because of these New Democrat, Blue Dog candidates out there winning in these competitive swing districts,” Representative Ron Kind of Wisconsin, co-chairman of a caucus of centrist House Democrats, said in an interview.

What are we to make of this? That such candidates aren't really Democrats? If so, wouldn't that defeat the intent of having a majority? Are they are so intent on gaining "market share" that they're willing to concede the Republicans a working majority just to get a nominal one? They're anti-abortion, pro-gun ownership, anti-same-sex-marriage, everything the Kos Democrats hate?

I've lamented the system that protects incumbents in either party against reformers from that party. This sounds like the kind of Republicans conservatives want to see could come from the Democrats. What's the catch? How is this a win in any real sense for the Dems?

Maybe it's part of their search to understand "values" voters, which I've always found kind of pointless. The kind of moral values the exit polls told them that voters were concerned about in 2004 were pretty obvious, I thought. Things like not having to explain what oral sex is to your 6 year old or why it's on the news every night. Ditto for premarital sex, homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Moral values for Democrats mean not using the N-word, avoiding war at all costs, the right of privacy whenever you want it or to be indecent when you want to, and eliminating poverty through government policies. Liberals tend to think enforcing their moral values is just ducky, if the modern university is an indication. I don't think the Democratic base is really ready to accept conservative values. If they're after what I think they are, they should be recruiting libertarians, not conservatives.